Something To Talk About
by bellakitse
Summary: Rumors can be horrible but sometimes rumors are the best thing that can happen. High School Bingo prompt. 'Rumors'


Title: Something to Talk About {1/1}

Category: Glee

Genre: Romance

Ship: Rachel/Puck

Rated: K

Summary: Rumors can be horrible but sometimes rumors are the best thing that can happen.

High School Bingo prompt. _'Rumors'_

_Rumor: __ 'talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source'_

"_Did you hear…"_

"_No…"_

"_Rachel Berry and Puckerman… "_

"…_.at Lopez party."_

"_What…"_

"_Yeah…"_

"_Bedroom…"_

"_Together…"_

"_Alone…"_

Whisper, whisper, whisper. Everywhere Rachel Berry went whispers, hushed tones, shrewd looks and amused smiles followed. She reined in the blush she knew was dying to make itself known by taking a deep breath and returned the looks she was being given with an icy glare of her own. She was Rachel Berry and no one, especially the unwashed masses at McKinley High were going to see her crack. She continued walking down the hall with her head held high, breathing a sigh of relief as she reached the music room, finding her friends and Glee mates already inside. That relief turned to anxiety and then annoyance as she watched them stop their little conversations and turned to look at her with various degrees of curiosity, some more nasty than others. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were talking about.

Rachel looked down, feeling a headache begin. "Not you guys, too."

Some of them like Tina, Artie, Matt and Mike had the decency to look away sheepishly. Brittany, bless her, looked confused as always and Quinn looked bored with the conversation before it even started. It really said something about her mood that she was grateful for Quinn's total lack of interest unlike the rest of the Glee members, each and everyone were giving her looks that made her stomach clench. Santana and Mercedes looked like they wanted to scratch her eyes out. Finn, her very recent ex, was looking at her the same way he had when she had made her '_run Joey run' _video. But it was Kurt's face that filled her with real dread. The look on Kurt's face matched the rest of the school, a maliciously gleeful expression at the prospect of dirt; at the moment, the smaller boy reminded Rachel of a shark-smelling chum, bloodthirsty, or in Kurt's case gossip-thirsty.

"So, Rachel," Kurt smiled a thin, oily smile, living up to the worse parts of gay stereotype and acting like a nasty queen. "It's going around school that you and Puck locked yourselves away in Santana's parents bedroom Friday night and didn't come out till _much_ later, that in fact, someone had to bang on the door to get you guys out of there, much, much later."

Rachel looked over at the Spanish girl who was glaring daggers at her, she remained silent as Kurt continued, his smile growing when Finn coughed uncomfortably behind him. "And you know, you and Puck disappear shortly after the party got started and none of us can remember seeing you guys again, care to comment?"

"No, she doesn't." The only person missing other than their teacher walked in. Rachel tensed as she heard Noah's deep voice, shifting her feet as he came up behind her, placing an arm around her shoulder. "Leave her alone, Kurt."

Kurt's smile became more amused at her expense and she didn't dare look around. "Defending your fair lady. How precious!"

Rachel watched out of the corner of her eye how Noah's narrowed, she felt his arm tensed around her. "We might be teammates now, Hummel, but you keep being a little punk and I'm going to forget that and you'll be making a trip to a dumpster."

Kurt lost his smile and Mercedes opened her mouth to defend her friend only to be cut off by Puck. "Spare me, Mercedes, if he can dish it out, he can take it and I didn't see you or anyone stopping him when he was bugging Rachel."

Mercedes closed her mouth but that didn't stop her from sending her a look at the reprimand. The silence that fell over the group was thankfully cut short by Mr. Schuester walking in. If he noticed the tense cloud over the Glee Club, he didn't comment, that didn't stop him or anyone else in the room from not noticing, however, the way Puck placed his hand at the small of Rachel's back, guiding her to a seat next to him in the back row.

If she was honest, she didn't listen to half of what Mr. Schuester said, the focus divided between the looks everyone continued throwing her way and her looking at the boy next to her. When Mr. Schuester finally finished, she watched as he collected his things, leaving them with parting words of rehearsal schedules; no doubt racing to go met up with Ms. Pillsbury. The rest of the group lingered, picking up their things slowly. She was about to get up herself when she felt Noah placed his arm once again around her shoulders, keeping her in her seat. He stared straight ahead as if daring anyone to say anything. One by one each of them left until only she and Noah remained.

"You okay?"

Rachel turned her seat to look at him and he did the same. "They all think we slept together at the party."

Puck smiled a little and spoke almost comfortingly. "What did you really expect, Rachel?"

"I don't know, I guess I figured they would give us the benefit of the doubt."

He smiled more fully now. "Maybe if it had been another guy, but it was me and everyone knows I don't go into a bedroom with a girl without hitting that. I have a reputation after all."

Rachel huffed, annoyed and stood up, towering over him. "Might I remind you that this time you didn't '_hit that'_?"

"We can rectify that whenever you want." He offered with a twinkle in his eyes that gave her a hard time remaining stern with him.

"Noah," She whined. "You're not helping."

"Helping is what got us here in the first place." He remind her and Rachel thought back to what had started all of this in the first place.

She had been walking around the second floor of Santana's house when Jacob Ben Israel had shown up out of nowhere, cornering her with his creepy ways in the hallway, his hands reaching out to touch her. She had been about to scream bloody murder when Noah had shown up and pulled the nerdy kid away from her and took her into the nearest room but not before issuing Jacob a warning that seemed then more out of friendly concern. Of course, after Jacob was done crapping his pants, he had taken his role of school gossip with a vengeance and spread around the party that she and Noah had barricaded themselves away, adding his own source of colorful commentary. And everyone had eaten it up, adding to speculation if maybe that was the reason she and Finn had broken up weeks earlier.

"Finn thinks we were cheating on him while he and I were together."

Puck watched her as she paced. "Did he say that?"

Rachel stopped. "No, but he didn't have to, the look on his face said everything."

"If he thinks that, then he's an idiot."

"Noah," She said softly as to not upset him. "It happened with Quinn, it's not a stupid leap."

"You're not Quinn," He responded just as quietly but firmly. "You wouldn't do that to him and he should know it."

Rachel sat down again. "Santana and Mercedes wanted to kill me."

"Their problem, I'm not with either of them."

"Kurt is joyful at the idea of having this over my head." She continued.

"Kurt is a delusional jerk that thinks this will somehow get him a step closer to being with Finn." Puck countered.

Rachel smiled, defeated. "You are going to have an answer for everything I say, aren't you?"

"I've been hanging out with you too much, it's rubbing off."

"Nice."

Puck sighed as he reached over and took one of her hands. "What do you want, Rachel, do you want me to beat the crap out of him?"

Rachel's forehead knitted in confusion. "Kurt?"

"Kurt, Jacob, whoever."

"So if I tell you to beat the whole school up, you will?"

Puck shrugged. "Sure why not."

Rachel laughed at his easy answer.

"What's the real problem, Rachel?"

Rachel looked down at their joined hands, the way he ran his thumb over her knuckles absently. "I guess it's that everyone is talking about us and we haven't even done anything… there's nothing to talk about."

Puck smiled at her words; his expression amused, teasing. He let go of her hand and reached under her legs, grabbing the legs of her chair and pulled her in close between his opened legs, her startled face inches away from his. He placed his index finger under her chin, tilting her head. He kept his eyes opened, watching as she closed hers when he leaned in further. He ran the tip of his tongue over the curves of her lips, tracing them, smiling into the kiss when she parted her lips for him with a low moan. Closing his mouth over hers, he loved the sweet warmth of her mouth.

Kissing Noah was exactly how she remembered. Exciting and touching in the way he cradled her face in his hands tenderly, the way his tongue danced with hers. Playful in the way he took light nips at her lips with his teeth. When he pulled back, they were both breathing hard and she was sure she had a silly smile on her face. She leaned into his hand when he caressed her cheek and let out an embarrassing sigh when he pulled her even closer and placed a soft kiss against her hair before pressing his forehead against hers.

"So let's give them something to talk about."


End file.
